This invention relates to ultrasound color flow imaging, and more particularly relates to such imaging based on a portion of a subject in which fluid flow is identified.
A conventional ultrasound system typically interleaves B-mode imaging with color flow imaging. The color flow vectors from the color flow imaging are formed over the entire color flow region of interest (ROI) for every acoustic frame. These color flow vectors typically are contained in several interleave groups across the ROI. Every vector position in the color flow ROI is sampled and processed for every acoustic frame before display. As a result, a large amount of processing is required in order to produce a color flow image of the entire region of interest. In addition, a large amount of memory is normally required and a substantial reduction in frame rate may occur. This invention addresses these problems and provides a solution.